So it was, I decided (for some odd reason) to have the cast & crew screening on the first day of Chinese New Year, thinking I'll screen the Seattle cut and possibly spend the Saturday putting together a blooper reel.
Then I watched the Seattle cut. More sound problems. For some reason some of the dialogue tracks got pushed a smidgen and some of the fades no longer faded into each other, making very abrupt cuts in sound. So I spent Saturday night fixing all these little problems, re-rendering the cut, then attempting, once again, to burn the fucker to DVD. As before, this took me many tries, the computer all the while crashing, but finally, it got to it.
By now it was Sunday and I went to pick-up my girlfriend to hang out with her for a bit before preparing everything for the screening. I asked everyone to come around 7:30pm. About 4 of the cast & crew members couldn't make it, but everyone else could. In fact, everyone else wanted to bring a friend. Or three. In the end I had a guest list of 30 people. Originally I was going to cook some pasta for these people but in the end I figured two barrels of fried chicken would go down better.
Anyway, my girlfriend and I had a quick bite at Penang Mari, bought some paper plates and drinks and made our way back home. The DVD finished burning at around 6:30pm, I slotted it in and... oh, fuck.
The chapters were in the wrong order.
Fuck fuck fuck.
I quickly went about setting up another DVD to burn and after a few tries it started transcoding the files at around 7:00pm.
That's when the first of the many guests arrived.
Hoping everyone would turn up late, I prayed that the DVD would burn properly. As the guests started coming, Tony came over with the projector and we set about preparing everything for the screening. To test it out I put on 'Lost Boys', which kept everyone inside occupied for a while whilst those outside chit-chatted throughout, a lot of the people I'd invited hadn't seen each other for some time.
Diana went out and bought the chicken and some snacks whilst I stressed over the DVD. 8:30pm rolled around and the computer said there was only 15 minutes left. Thank God. I announced to everyone that the screening would be starting soon then ate some chicken. Fifteen minutes later I checked the computer. It said there was only 15 minutes lef... hang on.
Oh.
Oh, fuck-a-doodle-do.
There was no way I was going to leave these guys waiting another two hours, so I figured maybe I could program the chapter list on the DVD player. Yeah. That'll work! I called everyone in and started off with a little speech that went something like this:
"Err... thank you all for coming. I... I really don't think I need to talk about how much work's been put into this and I'd just like to thank everyone involved in making this dream of mine come true: thank you so much. Oh, and if anyone has any negative comments or didn't like the movie do me a favour and shut the fuck up after the screening. Now I'm going upstairs to play 'Soul Reaver'."
No, I didn't go upstairs to play 'Soul Reaver'. Although I was very tempted.
I played the disc and re-programming the chapters didn't work, so I had to put on the Seattle cut. Great. I sat in the corner, tense as fuck, watching everyone's reaction.
And I think they liked it.
They laughed in all the right places (and some of the wrong places too, but that's ok, I'll take what I can get) and not just a snigger or a giggle, I mean huge laugh-out-loud laughs. And when the highlight of the action sequence played out everybody started applauding which made me feel very warm inside.
The strange thing is not enough of these reactions registered as I was so frickin' tired so my mind is, for some reason, still dubious as to whether or not people enjoyed it.
After the screening everyone came up to congratulate me (more warm feelings in my tummy) and, apart from a few mistakes in one or two of the cuts or exposure pointed out by some, the overall reaction was incredibly positive.
Which was nice.
Though tired, dehydrated and near death, it all turned out alright on the night. I'd like to thank all those that came, it was great to see you all in one place and thanks for the positive comments and feedback. I couldn't have done it without you guys.
Now I gotta figure out the main press & publicity screening. I've got a couple ideas as to where to screen it but I'm not too sure. One thought was to have it at the HELP auditorium since my last two short films premiered there. Another thought was to have it at Paul's Place (might be cool, very lo-fi, something new for the arty-farty-literati's) and the ultimate was to just rent out the digital screening theatre at GSC (mind on overdrive, here).
Anyone else out there got any ideas?
Oh, and in case some of you are wondering, anyone who reads this blog gets a free invite. Noonch.
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